A British fairytale ruin: the abandoned shoe house on the Isle of Wight

@ElentirENG ES 2·04·2023 · 23:27 0

England is a place very rich in legends, and it is also rich in very picturesque abandoned places, like the one that concerns us today.

Puzzlewood: the millenary forest that inspired J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling
Sailing underground through Standedge, the longest channel tunnel in the United Kingdom

In the south of England is the Isle of Wight, which covers an area of 390 square kilometers and has been a holiday destination for many Britons for many years. In the extreme south of the island is Undercliff (that is, Cliff, in English), a rural area that has a warmer climate than the rest of the island. In that place someone forgot a shoe. I know this shouldn't be news, since in many parts of the world someone loses a shoe every day, but not like this one: It's a huge shoe, with doors and windows, like something out of a fairy tale.

In 2020, in the photo from the 28DL website published the photos of this shoe house that you can see here. The author of the photos claims to have heard different versions about the place: it could be a holiday camp for children built in the 1980s 1950's, or maybe an old resort. I have searched for information about the place but there is hardly anything. Whatever that place was, the only thing left of it is this enormous and enigmatic shoe, which apparently is not easy to reach.

Four years ago, the YouTube channel Abandoned Isle of Wight, which has interesting videos about ruins on and around that island, he posted a video showing the inside of that shoe house, noting that it is located at the bottom of some cliffs between Ventnor and St Catherine: